Menu

The simple life

My sister showed me this quotation by Carl Jung on the simple life, which he wrote in 1941, and it seems that not much has really changed….which makes it even more poignant.

The return to the simple life can be regarded as an unexpected stroke of luck, even if such a “return” requires no little sacrifice and is not even voluntary…All time-saving measures, which include easier communications and other conveniences, paradoxically do not save any time, but merely serve to fill up what time there is so that one really has no more time at all. This inevitably gives rise to breathless haste, superficiality, and nervous exhaustion, all with the attendant symptoms such as craving for stimulation, impatience, irritability, and vacillation. Such a condition leads to many things, but never to increased refinements of mind or heart.